What'd I say?.......

Beyond the right field fence.... sometimes in the parking lot... a shelter house...  Even...EVEN A TERM POLICY?  No, that ain't it.  Even in the bleachers....  An obvious joke was about to be told after a softball game of aging men aspiring to neva' leggo of being a kid...  "WAIT!", my buddy would holler before the joke got rolling... and he'd get a pen and paper out, then record it as it was told so he could retell to others later.

In 1839, some playwright named Edward Bulwer-Lytton, for his historical play Cardinal Richelieu (I neva' heard of it either) wrote "The pen is mightier than the sword."

Reckon it is. 'Cept, we lefthanders have trouble.  We smudge.  We do.  Ya write left to right. (I was curious about that, why?  Why left to right.  I mean, we gots steering wheels on both sides, some roads ya drive on the right, some on the left... CNN is for the left..  FOX for the right.. the hell?  Why can't both work? 

... rehtie onnud I ,drutciV em staeB

Where was I?  Oh yeah.  Insomnia. 2am. Writing blog.  Left to right.  Anyways, we smudge.  We lefties.

Lamar (Hunt) had a dream. He wanted to own an NFL team. He tugged on Commissioner Bert Bell's shoulder multiple times only to receive nothing but discouragement.  So... he tried to buy a team from an owner.  Nope.  Each, every one said "Nope, but mebbe you can buy a minority share of the team." Lamar then said "Nope, but thanks."

Then, Lamar heard about a guy in Houston... and Denver... and Minneapolis... and a hosta other cities (Boston, Buffalo, NY, Oakland, LA) who ALSO wanted to buy a team........

So (a needle pulling thread? Ahm, no) So..... LIGHTBULB.  After several years of becoming bored with the oil industry, he excitedly boarded an American Airlines flight home... asked a stewardess for some stationary, and right there on 3 pages of American Airlines onionskin stationary he penned the plans (provisons for owners, rough estimates of costs for equipment, revenue for ticket sales, and even (EVEN A ......VICTOR, DON'T) and even a rough schedule for the first year.  Kaboom.  The AFL (some years later to merge with the NFL) was born. As in airborne. I understand those three pages are displayed somewhere within the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH.

The inception of the AFL.  Then, some Fitty-four years later, after a move of the Dallas Texans to Kansas City, the merger, after Broadway Joe's guarantee... right there in Miami, right into Fox's microphone, Super Bowl Champ Travis Kelce hollered "YOU GOTTA FIGHT... FOR YOUR RIGHTTTTTT.. TO PAAAAAAAARRRRRRTY!!!!:" Lamar did/had, won that right. See the onionskin proof. (In actuality, Lamar's KC Chiefs did win it more Swiftly [sorry, kinda, not really] as Super Bowl Champs in 1969.)

You gotta fight for your right to party.  Victor, who penned that?  I'm so glad you asked. The Beastie Boys. In 1986, written to poke fun at frat boys and their party lifestyle. Go figure, frat boys loved it, endorsed it. ANYWAYS, it was penned in five minutes. FIVE MINUTES. On a napkin.

Pen. Bullpen. Ballpoint pen. Quill, felt-tip, fountain, gel, pen (a female swan), pen - whar ya go if you're in trouble, pen (surrounded, penned in), pen - whar ya keep sheep, cattle, pigs, yada.  Lotsa pens.  EVEN (VICTOR!) Even pens without ink.

Ray Charles was without. 28 years old old.  He, his 7-piece orchestra, 3 beautiful voiced gals named the Cookies (later to become the Raelettes.)  Anyways, there he/they were.  A four hour gig, not to be confused with a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour.  Promising four hours of entertainment, 15 minutes left to go, Ray and the group had sung every song they knew.  Gulp.  Fearing they wouldn't get paid if they left early, (too longa paragraph, see below perty please)

So...  (a needle.. VICTOR!).. So, he looked at the group, said "Listen, I'm just going to fool around and y'all just follow me.  There, right there, written in his head (NOT penned) was the song "What'd I Say." Hey mama don't ya treat me wrong.. come and love your daddy all night long.. see the gal with the red dress on.. she can do the do the Birdland all night long, hey hey, what'd I say."

Circling back to our Kansas City Chiefs, fun article (my opine) penned this morn in the KC Star. Victor, it's 4:50am, you've already read the paper?  Uh huh, and done Wordle, and watched ABC News and local News, perused what other insomniacs have said on Facebook... OK OK, we get it.  Article about Andy Reid, back in the day, when Andy was a Senior football player at BYU, he wrote a weekly column for the Provo Daily Herald. (More)

When asked, "If you had chosen the career with pen, what would your articles be like?".....“They’d be fun articles to read. You’d look forward to reading them,” he said, smiling and adding, “They’d be colorful. Colorful. I’d use my imagination and not just write from a script.”  Andy appreciates the power of words...  “Words can affect a lot of people. We know that. And the person who has the pen last wins,” he said. “Even if you come back with a rebuttal from my side, it’s not going to hold weight."

Even though Dale (my buddy who stopped the joke teller so he could get a pen), Edward Bulwer-Lytton (the sword qoute guy), Lamar, Travis Kelce, The Beastie Boys, Ray Charles, and Andy...  while they didn't hold the pen long, they held the pen last, and won.

Forward by Sean Penn...  Samuel Clemons (Pen name Mark Twain).. Taylor Swift as Nils Sjoberg (sorry, not sorry),  Theodor Geisel as Dr. Suess.

Victor, we get it. Put the pen down. NOW. 

K.

(But I had it last!, ie, Victor means just that, Victor!)

Love, with a tad bit of smudging, Victurd